each day an adventure in alaska: the vote is in....

the puppies love snow!! the other vote we shall all have to wait for. easy to guess who I'm not rooting for with this blog. look how handsome my boy Tusker looks with snow on him.

i also did some test runs on the costumes i have here for the pups. they were tired from the walk so seemed my best hope. they were less than amused and having 2 of them means they not only try to bite off the costume i put on them, but they help their sibling try to take their costume off as well. some folks are coming over for the chill pumpkin massacre tomorrow.

not the best week for the pups while i was at work. probably due to my being a bit lazy...well not really lazy, but sick. in their minds it's lazy though. they are used to walks and when they don't get walked...well stuff can happen. this was a John Muir book. hadn't finished it...will have to buy it on the ipad i guess. yet another reason to shift to ipad reading. did buy some new reading glasses. my reading has been less than normal of late...I'm now thinking it's because all my reading glasses seem to have disappeared. they are like socks I'm finding.

the book was the better of the two mornings i came home. i generally leave the gate door open to the outdoor dog run. i have been fretting about this. what if's running through my mind and this caused me to panic the other night and close the outside gate to the run. see pic 3 down...that is the carpet on the stairs. demolished. that is not a good thing. perhaps they were so excited watching the snow fall all night and not being able to get to it.

selfishly i really wanted to be there for their first snowfall...i think that also worked on my brain to shut the gate. i do worry about stuff with them out there. they have chips in but i take their collars off at home. so i worry there will be wind and the fence will come down and they will get out...or a big quake. or someone will throw food laced with poison over the fence. or steal them..see how my mind can panic. for years i would have these awful dreams where Blossom was on the verge of death and I'd wake up without knowing the outcome.

admittedly, I'm probably too attached to these dogs. all of them. i have been for years. not having kids...these are my family. they are the ones i come home to. the ones i walk with. dogs are always committed to you, always loyal and never have a bad thing to say about you. they forgive and forget and they are your greatest fan...who wouldn't love that!!

i have had boyfriends jealous of my relationship with my dogs. love me, love my dog, that is for sure. clearly, i haven't found a person who loves me and my dogs. i never wanted the pets to be a battle...even when they pull this stuff, below on the carpet. the orange color is shortening laced with a great deal of cayenne pepper. hopefully, to prevent further chewing.

i debated calling out sick Wednesday...the bronchial asthma symptoms had kicked in..for me that means being short of breath and coughing a lot!! a lot...if you haven't been around me for this. i can puke pretty easily with the coughing. i also had a migraine on Wednesday...it had subsided so i decided to give work a try. worked ICU 2 nights. assignment wasn't bad for all my coughing, i wore a mask to protect everyone.

after 2 nights of coughing i was totally wiped out and opted out of that third night. my chest was hurting when i walked fast. came home to snow...which was beautiful. that day i slept a lot. actually i took dogs for a walk...a slow walk. aside from that i slept until the next day. i woke at2:30 that day, walked, then i woke again around 7:30, fed the dogs, woke briefly at 9:30 pm and then it was morning.

ice from the ground. the ground was busy freezing up before this snow came. it's always cool to watch. if it freezes before that first snow we have a good chance of keeping the snow....if it doesn't warm up like it has off and on the past 2 winters. hoping for a good snow year though, we all are.

the puppies came to the door the morning it snowed and just stopped and looked outside. they were not too sure what to make of it, but then they were off like a bolt and when i next woke up, i don't think there was more than a few inches of yard that has not been trampled on. they are huge fans of snow it seems

the last 2 days we have walked up the airstrip and then around. went slow. stopped for coughing, inhalers...the dogs are not in a hurry to get anywhere, thankfully, they just wanted to be out there having fun and running around.

was going to hit N Biv today but there was some trucks blocking the road and the cars were stacking up. no idea what was up, but i opted to not sit in a line of cars when i could just turn around and walk in another area. the dogs could care less if we do a repeat trail. we did loop around the homestead way. no moose spotted the last 2 days.

blossom in the crate. she is so sweet and cute. she's taking over the crate as her own. how can i turn the sweet girl down . probably gives her a break from the kids. she does love them though. i think she just likes her own space. so it will stay where it is.

sorry these are all mixed up. cell phone pics and pics from the bigger camera later.

from last weeks Monday walk. no snow yet.

finally made it to the store to pick up some pumpkins . spendy buggers, but so fun. I'll have to try and carve one before everyone gets here, just so i have one out there. my house cleaning/decorating has not been a priority of late...puppies and then add to that me feeling ill.

did try to do a few things tonight. that is what led me to putting costumes on the dogs. not sure they can be trusted for the entire night with costumes on. they may destroy them.

the polka dot snowmen are back. was too tired the other day to really get down and make loads of them, but here is one that i made on the back deck. it was heavy/wet snow

Ivy checking out what I'm doing.

she does photograph well.

here is the ice that i was holding but still in the ground

a friend on the trail snapped a pic of me with the dogs. not my best look. at 50 not sure i will have too many best look pictures at this point. again...the dogs could care less about my age and how i look. gotta love animals!!

saw this young bald eagle the other day on the road.

a few days out at campbell airstrip trails

it was cloudy yesterday and bright and sunny today.

the pups are pretty sleepy tonight. both are here in the office, out!

for my walking, they run circles around me. they certainly do not act tired at all during the walk . it's getting tougher to walk both of them on leash together. the pulling is rough especially with greetings. they actually did much better off leash. I'd call them off trail and they'd come right over, sit and eat treats from me as whatever/whoever passed us by. got many compliments. these same pups on leash though...frustrating. not helping that i have this tendinitis on my left arm or that today as i was trying to load them up they noticed the new neighbors outside with their dog and a cat. they are moving their lives over to the new place. i got tossed pretty hard into the wall on my deck. it's sore and super swollen...bruises to follow I'm sure.

it bites getting older...all these little aches and pains that just seem to develop. not complaining too much . it beats so many alternatives. i see the health issues that totally take over others lives and i know that overall i am pretty dang lucky.

these guys have loads of energy and the snow is just super fun to wrestle in. i did manage to get them to the side of the trail on leash as a skier went past. she expressed much gratitude that the dogs were all leashed up..i didn't have the heart to tell her that up until the last 1/2 mile of my walk they were off leash. they really did great listening off leash though. i was pretty happy with that part of the day.

last debate is over, thank the lord. Drumpf made it clear that he has no intention of going quietly into the night if he should lose. i fear his supporters won't either. likely to be the first time in my lifetime that there could be blood shed after an election.

watching him these last weeks I'm becoming more convinced that he is possibly mentally unbalanced. i suspect this, that his wealth and position has meant that those in close proximity have covered for him all these years and now that he is out there on the trail, added stress, no down time. they can't protect him and he's probably not aware he has any issues.

my other thought is that since US banks are not keen on dealing with him anymore he needs the help of foreign banks. perhaps...deals were made and his goal all along was simply to use the hatred of HRC to destroy or at least breakdown the GOP. probably could have swung the other way and made the attempt with the Dems, but the visceral hatred of HRC gives him the advantage of manipulating those who vote Republican. hatred makes you weak in a way. it makes you more open to manipulation and hearing negative over truth even.

i guess option 3 is that I'm totally wrong and he's the greatest guy on earth and will make America great if he gets in. I'm not buying that option though. I'm more convinced it's option 1 or 2. we may never know.

he's threatened to sue the women who came forward. he often threatens to sue. it may not be in his best interest though. the more time, effort and money he puts to this probably makes it more apparent that it is true.

neither of these candidates should be our next POTUS...but these are the choices we have for the moment. still another few weeks. God only knows what else will come out of this circus of a run for POTUS. I'm afraid to look. of course, the media is already saying HRC has won. I'm not one to buy into those polls. I'd rather they just not give their guesses as to how the election will roll. i also don't agree with the play by play as the polls close across the nation. folks like us in AK and Hawaii should be able to just vote and not have the results in and contest over before our polling booths have closed. there should be none of these announcements until after the last polling place has closed. my state will no doubt go Drumpf. we have a nut job in the house that 's been there since we've become a state. he says some outlandish stuff and still he keeps getting voted in.

totally read a sad story. there was a house fire in the lower 48. in the end, a dead child was found curled up with a teddy bear and the family dog, dead also. they suspect the dog went to be with the child. maybe it tried to save the kid but gave up and lay with the child to the end. so sad.

cloudy day pics came out too dark. part of me thinks it's my catch all lens. i like it but it does have some limits i think.

today was more sunny. they had a great time running all over. lots of pups to play with out there.

Blossom joined in some as well.

need to look at the holiday schedule. see how that played out . also need to sign dogs up for more classes. clearly they could use more training. proofing is next up for Ivy Rose i guess. it's just making sure they are good at what they have learned already.

they are great tempered dogs and it would be cool to be able to get them well trained and possibly make them part of the dog visiting team to hospitals.